The Night the Crabs Attacked
Prelude
The creeks and ponds of Andros island in The Bahamas are the habitats of the land crabs that live there and are caught and sold as a source of income for many of the Adrosian islanders.
But toxic fluids from experiments at a secret US Military Investigation Laboratory Base, had unknowingly been leaking into the creeks and ponds and the crabs were drinking it.
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Chapter 1
On a full moon night at the beginning of the new crab season Morris Barr and Buck Cartwright decided they were going to go into the bushes hunting crabs to catch. Morris was an Andros native and his friend Buck was visiting him from Long Island. Morris had promised Buck that when he came to visit he would be sure to take him crabbin'. You caught land crabs by sticking your hand into a crab hole and grab the crab just the right way to avoid getting pinched with its claws and then you pull it out, or you can chase a crab when you see it on the ground and again use your hand to grab it from the back and pick it up very carefully. Morris and Buck got themselves each a flashlight to see in the dark bushes and a crocus sack each to put the live crabs in. They were hoping to catch as much as they could to sell and keep some too, to make crab soup and crab 'n' rice, two tasty Bahamian native dishes.
They set out on their trek into the bushes, through a narrow track road, right next to Morris' old wooden cottage. After a few minutes they saw no crabs but could hear them rustling on the leafy ground in the distance as they walked. Morris suggested they split up to increase their chances of spotting any crabs. Normally they would have definitely seen and caught many crabs by now but this was strange. It almost felt as if the crabs were lurking and hiding and watching them closely. It was creepy. So Morris went off to the left and Buck went off to the right, deeper into the dark bush.
As Morris maneuvered through the bush hunting he heard wings flapping and instinctively looked up. Holy Mother of God! What the hell was that he was looking at. Up in the branches of a dead tree illuminated by moonlight was a huge, two foot wide land crab with glowing red eyes, sharp fangs and bat wings. Morris was frozen in place, spellbound. This can't be real he thought. Just then he heard a loud guttural scream coming from across the bushes. It sounded like Buck. Quickly Morris shook himself back to reality and broke off running towards where they had parted. He didn't see him and began shouting his name.
"Buck! Buck! Where you is Buck!", he called.
Morris heard more rustling in the bushes not too far away from him. It sound like a swarm of a thousand crabs. He slowly and stealthily made his way towards the sound. Morris came to a small clearing and could not believe his eyes. Before him on the ground was a heaping swarm of the bat-crab creatures like the one he saw before. They sensed his presence and took off in a flash, some flying up and some scurrying off deeper into the darkness. What Morris saw next was even more horrible than anything he had seen so far that night. On the ground now lay a skeleton of a man picked clean by the bat-crabs.
"Oh my God! Buck!", he screamed.
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Chapter 2
Sergeant Philip Hepburn was awakened by a loud pounding on his front door. Hepburn was a tall, strapping man, with a serious attitude. He jumped up and looked through the porch window and saw Morris shaking and crying uncontrollably. Sergeant Hepburn opened the door and Morris ran in quickly, looking over his shoulder scared. He was almost all out of breath and gasping for air because he had just run over a mile from his home to the little settlement of Bonefish Town seeking out the Sergeant.
"What happen Morris?" asked Sergeant Hepburn.
"Sarge! Sarge! Buck dead!", exclaimed Morris.
"What you say?" Sergeant Hepburn had met Buck just a few days ago when he first came to visit Morris. "What you mean Buck dead?", he asked in disbelief.
"We was crabbin' an' now he dead in da bush!" shouted Morris.
"Dead in the bush? How?" he queried.
"The creatures. The bat-crab creatures eat him alive!", Morris cried.
Sergeant Hepburn felt positive this was some kind of prank or Morris for sure must have lost his damn mind. "What the hell you talkin' 'bout?", he shouted. "You been drinkin' again ay Morris? I tell you before to slow down on that liquor, cause you always is lose control and people is have to call me to come get you."
"I een bin drinkin' Sarge, I swear.", said Morris sadly. "Buck dead fer true".
Then he started to cry again. "Oh Lord, oh Lord what dis is? I een never see nuttin like dis in my life"
Sergeant Hepburn took a long, hard look at Morris trying to assess the situation. If this was a prank then Morris was surely putting on a good show. But he knew he had to take all reports seriously and decided to investigate. He changed his clothes and grabbed a flashlight and his police truck keys.
"Ok Morris, let's go. Take me back to where yall was crabbin' ", Hepburn commanded.
"Yes", said Morris, "But just one thing"
"What?", asked Sarge.
"You better bring your gun.", replied Morris worryingly.
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Chapter 3
It was around midnite now and the full moon was shining bright directly overhead in the starry, island night sky. It made the island road gleam like a Bahamian Racer snake as they drove. Sergeant Hepburn pulled the truck over to the side of the road in front of Morris' home. Sarge got out and turned to Morris.
"You comin' Morris?, he asked.
"I scared.", Morris whimpered.
"Morris you better come out this truck before I arrest you for makin' up stories and lyin' to the police.", Hepburn shouted.
"Dis een no story an' I een lyin'", Morris said emphatically.
Morris got out reluctantly and they both headed into the mysterious bush with their flashlights. Sarge also carried his shotgun while Morris lead the way. The moonlight through the trees created spooky patterns on the ground as they walked and they could hear rustling off in the distance. Like the sound of swarms of thousands of crabs walking. Big crabs.
Eventually they came to the clearing and Morris pointed to the ground. Sergeant Hepburn looked in disbelief and shook his head to catch his self. Yes, it was true. There on the ground lay the remains of Mr. Buck Cartwright. In the pocket of the tattered remnants of Buck's pants Sergeant Hepburn found Bucks wallet and used his drivers license to ID him for sure. Yep. It was Buck.
Hepburn took out his phone, turned on the flash and took pictures of the scene and surroundings. Then he turned to Morris and told him to explain to him exactly how things progressed that night. So Morris told the Sergeant how they went in the bush then split up. He told him of the bat-crab creature he saw in the tree and how he heard a scream and ran to find the swarm of bat-crabs and the skeletal remains of Buck on the ground.
Just then, Hepburn and Morris heard the rustling getting louder and closer but their flashlights could show nothing. Then without warning, something dropped on the ground right in front of them. They looked down, aimed their flashlights and to their horror they saw a bat-crab right there in front of them. Before they could react the creature jumped onto Morris' chest and sunk its fangs into his neck injecting highly poisonous venom. Morris was dead before he hit the ground. The creature was thrown clear and turned to face Sergeant Hepburn. It was just about to jump but Hepburn was quick and blew it out the air mid-jump with his shotgun.
The shot alerted the bat-crab swarms and Sarge could hear them coming closer fast. He turned and ran with all his might back to the truck with thousands of bat-crabs giving chase. He made it to the truck and was just about to start it when he heard loud flapping overhead. Sarge looked up and was shocked in fear when he saw the full moon darkened by a flock of bat-crabs flying towards Bonefish Town. He started the truck and sped back to the settlement. On The way he called up a few of the men in the settlement and told them to load their guns and lock up their house doors and windows, explained the situation and also told them to pass the message on. Sarge made it back home and did the same. These creatures were dangerous but they could be killed.
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Chapter 4
The bat-crab swarms arrived and the creatures landed all over Bonefish Town. They were in the trees, on the ground, in the roads and on the rooftops and at the windows of houses scratching and digging trying to get inside. Every now and then you could hear the sound of a shotgun blast as a bat-crab met its fate. It went on all night with the sounds of shotguns being fired and islanders in the settlement screaming. Then just before dawn the still huge swarm of bat-crab creatures flew back to the bushes.
Sergeant Hepburn was the first to come out and saw a few skeletal remains of some of the islanders who didn't make it to safety in time. There were some who died in their homes too where a few of the creatures managed to break-in with their strong claws and biting victims with their poisonous fangs.
Sarge collected the remains of one of the bat-crab creatures from off the road and put it in a big plastic bag. He wanted to know what this thing was and only one person he knew could do it. Prof. Isaac Skingle at the secret Military Investigation Laboratory Base across the creek. He jumped in his truck with the dead thing and his shotgun and took off.
When Sarge arrived at the base he was met with chaos. The warning alarm was blaring, the security gate was wide open and there on the ground next to the entrance was the skeletal remains of what he presumed to be the night guard. In the parking lot and surroundings Sarge noticed many more skeletal bodies picked clean of flesh of those eaten alive by the bat-crab horrors. It looked like they were hit completely without warning.
He parked and grabbed his gun and the bat-crab remains and headed for the lab and the person he was looking for. Inside the building and along corridors he witnessed more carnage. The remains of more humans, some partially eaten and bat-crab creatures with bullet holes in them. It must have been a wild, insane battle.
Sarge found Prof. Skingle cowering under a desk in the lab. He dragged him out and asked him what the devil is going on. Sarge showed him the dead bat-crab and asked the professor what it was. Prof. Skingle explained about the creation of the mutant crabs after it was just recently discovered that toxic fluids had leaked into the creeks and ponds where the crabs lived. They fixed the leak but it was just too late. That night they had been unexpectedly attacked and were unprepared. Many workers died.
Sarge decided it was time to call for backup from Nassau with the Defence Force or even the US for military assistance before this thing grew too far out of control. He tried his phone but could not get a signal. He snatched up a land line phone and did not get a dial tone. It was completely dead. The large swarms of bat-crabs had destroyed and damaged the phone lines and the cell tower at the telephone station on the island. There was no way to get to the outside world and soon it would be night again.
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Chapter 5
That night Bonefish Town battened down again for another round of attacks from the hellish, nightmare bat-crabs spawned from the now polluted creeks and ponds of Andros. Sarge had taken Prof. Skingle back to his house for safe keeping as he felt the professor would have the knowledge and insight to defeat the deadly menace. Then they came.
Again there were shotgun blasts and the screams of the islanders as they perished from the bites of the demon bat-crab creatures. But around 2am all went quiet. And then there were the sounds of thuds as bat-crabs rolled off rooftops and fell from the sky in flight and hit the ground.
"What's happening? What's going on?", Sarge asked aloud with a puzzled look on his face.
"I think I know", the professor offered. "The toxins they ingested and caused them to mutate is now killing them. It's poisoning their systems."
Sarge scratched his head and opened his mouth and said "Or".
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Conclusion
Bonefish Town soon returned to normal after finally getting help from the outside world by a quick repair to the phone station. The island received a good clean-up and sterilization and the creeks and ponds were filtered and clean again. The secret US Military Investigation Laboratory Base was shut down and any further experiments were conducted in America.
Sergeant Hepburn settled back into his old daily routine, performing his duties and making his rounds on the island making sure all islanders were safe and everything was secure.
But he was sure no one would ever forget the night the crabs attacked.
The End.